Tens of thousands of people will take to the streets of Los Angeles on Sunday to run, walk and pray that the luck of the Irish will be upon them during the 28th L.A. Marathon.

A warm morning is forecast for the event, which lands on St. Patrick's Day this year. The marathon typically draws about 24,000 participants and hundreds of thousands of cheering spectators along the 26.2 mile route, which will be similar to last year's point-to- point course, starting at Dodger Stadium and ending in Santa Monica.

At 7:25 a.m., participants will leave the stadium and head down Sunset Boulevard, then pass through Chinatown, Olvera Street and Little Tokyo.

On their way to the finish line near the Santa Monica Pier, they'll pass two dozen distinctive landmarks, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Capitol Records building, Rodeo Drive and the Veteran's Administration-Heroes Hill.

"There will be no rains and no torrential winds this year," said Nick Curl, chief operating officer

for the LA Marathon who was referring to the 2011 event that was marked by cold and rain, and caused hundreds of participants to be evaluated for hypothermia.

But Curl noted that those who take on the L.A. Marathon are the resilient type.

"Neither a monsoon nor a rainstorm will stop them," he said. "They are dedicated to completing it."

Among those dedicated to finishing is Lorena Ortega, a 17-year-old senior at Marshall High School in Los Angeles who is blind. Ortega said she can't wait to hear the live music from bands that play along the route, to feel the cool Santa Monica air on her skin near the finish line and touch that medal for herself.

Ortega has been training for six months with Students Run L.A., an organization that challenges 1,300 youth within the Los Angeles Unified School district to finish the marathon.

"I was sort of peer-pressured into it," Ortega said. "In the end (my friends) all dropped out of it but I'm just really motivated because I practiced too hard to go back."

She said she'll run alongside one of the leaders from Students Run LA and has learned to set a solid pace.

"Once you get to pace you don't want to stop," Ortega said. "Now that I'm close, I know I have to finish."

This year's marathon will continue and expand on some of the social media projects that were used last year. Friends and loved ones will be able to track participants and even send a 10-second message that will be viewed on large screens at three spots on the route. A chip in the runner's bib will trigger their message when they cross at a certain point. In addition, there will be 25 water stations and 10 medical stations run by Keck Medical Center at USC.

In February, Irvine-based ASICS signed on as the new title sponsor of the LA Marathon through 2015.

Participants will once again run with the world's elite athletes, including Agoura Hills resident Deena Kastor, an American long-distance runner, who holds several American records in the marathon races and who won the bronze medal in the women's marathon at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.

And those who reach the finish line will receive a medal befitting of the day - one that includes a shamrock, Curl said.

Sona Donayan of Pasadena said she'll be participating in her 26th marathon on Sunday. She's completed races all across the nation and noted that by Sunday, she will have completed one marathon for every mile on the route.

But this race also is special because while she has run the L.A. Marathon before, Sunday will be the first time she will return to the Los Angeles event since she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2009 at age 43. With the help from doctors and nurses at City of Hope, and her own healthy lifestyle, she said she fought cancer and won.

"I owe my survival to running," said Donayan, who is participating to raise money for the Armenian Relief Society's Heart to Heart Fund.

"Running has helped me in life events, has been my consolation, my therapy," said the mother of two.

Returning to the Los Angeles course will be like coming home, she said.

"Life is a marathon for me," she said. "You never know what's going to happen, and I can't wait for that feeling of standing at the starting line and crossing the finish line."

For information on street closures or other questions, go to lamarathon.com.